Bare minumum plex server

utajoker

utajoker

utajoker

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Wigan
Hi


I have a Synology that just can't do higher quality files without buffering every couple of seconds so i plan to use it as a nas.

So im looking at something bare minimum and cheap to run a plex server.

CPU, memory, mobo and PSU.

Also if it can be as low power usage as possible running 24/7.

Thanks,
 
MAy be you need to diagnose the source problem first .. is it actually the syno that is at fault or is it the "receiving" hardware ? are you trying to stream locally eg in-house or are you trying to stream externally . It may weill be you connex speed that is the problem . Do not expect your 18Mb/s blu ray rips to play externally. Is your syno trying to transcode your streams?
Also why run it 24/7 ?
 
I am using locally only, mainly streaming to my Samsung tv which has the plex app.

Everything is wired connection also.

I believe my Syno is transcoding as it hits 100% cpu usage when i play anything. It can't handle anything bigger than around 5mbps bitrate.

And i would like to run it 24/7 because i'm lazy and don't want to turn something on/off when ever i want to watch something. Which is why i bought the synology, its always on and i don't have to worry about it. Until it cant stream stuff...
 
Tanscoding sucks, you have two options that make more sense, the free option is to convert your media to a format that your client can play natively, following on from that the next step is to replace the client with one that can play your media natively. If neither of those are possible, then look to change the server. Personally Plex on 'smart' TV's isn't great, but it's your call, either way you are heading down the least logical and most expensive route.
 
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My current Plex server is sandy i3 with 8gb ram, teamed Intel NICs.

Some 4k stuff when transcoding does cause it complain.. even with 'make my cpu hurt' so will be looking to upgrade soon. But this server has lasted many, many years of abuse!
 
Flying_Hellfish said:
My current Plex server is sandy i3 with 8gb ram, teamed Intel NICs.

Some 4k stuff when transcoding does cause it complain.. even with 'make my cpu hurt' so will be looking to upgrade soon. But this server has lasted many, many years of abuse!
Click to expand...

Why not just keep your media in a supported file format that allows the client to direct play? Transcoding sucks, upgrading the server to support poor file format selection choices and clients that are unsuitable is a short sighted solution as the CPU overhead required will just increase as the resolution/client count does. For reference an i3 should be capable of supporting a *lot* of clients if they're using direct play, remuxing audio I get, but full transcoding is best avoided.
 
It could possibly be you are using fast ethernet eg 100Mbits rather than gigabit .1000Mbits,. on hi bitrate that will cause problems,
Your syno has a power schedule get it to turn off when you know your not there.
I use plex on Sonytv and its pretty good .. all hardwired ..
a cheap/cheeky NUC beebox could act as a nice plex server too .
But try to check your networking speeds .. you could possibly be using 10Mb/s older switch/router, this would still pass muster on everyday task
Also try scanning your disk/s as surface errors while NOT fatal can cause a lot of disk thrashing etc.
 
I spent a lot of time trying different hardware and NAS's with Plex and ended up using my "old" desktop motherboard/CPU/RAM as you need something powerful for transcoding. No NAS or mini PC I could find for a decent price was good enough for more than 1x 1080P stream. So now am running it on an i5 4690K and never have any problems anymore. I would suggest you build a cheap PC with a simple motherboard, 8+ GB ram, and a quad core CPU from the last 2-3 years. Also get a platinum PSU as you will leave it on 24/7, it will save power usage :)
 
Avalon said:
Why not just keep your media in a supported file format that allows the client to direct play? Transcoding sucks, upgrading the server to support poor file format selection choices and clients that are unsuitable is a short sighted solution as the CPU overhead required will just increase as the resolution/client count does. For reference an i3 should be capable of supporting a *lot* of clients if they're using direct play, remuxing audio I get, but full transcoding is best avoided.
Click to expand...
Effort essentially. Ideally I want everything in x265 as this cuts down on required HD space, but I've got a lot of work ahead of me to run all my media through. My devices all support this and where I have media in that format, like you say it doesn't require any grunt at all.
 
NVidia Shield on the network - I'd even use it as your primary playback device as well. You just point it towards your Synology shares and administrate your library via the web browser.
 
The
Flying_Hellfish said:
Effort essentially. Ideally I want everything in x265 as this cuts down on required HD space, but I've got a lot of work ahead of me to run all my media through. My devices all support this and where I have media in that format, like you say it doesn't require any grunt at all.
Click to expand...

That's a whole different can of worms - personal approach is to leave the majority of things as they were.

HVEC has its strengths, it usually does better than H264 in low bandwidth/bit-rate scenario's (eg streaming), it's still not really that much better when it comes to the kind of encoding that you'd do yourself and want to keep (your personal media collection). Besides re-encoding from an H264 source to HVEC isn't generally going to give good results - you need to re-rip it from source and in some cases that's not possible/practical. Thankfully most devices that support HVEC also support H265 and storage is relatively cheap - even if I saved 15% of my storage the time/effort/power costs wouldn't really justify it for me personally.
 
I'd leave your stuff in orig format rather than compressing for more space. space, its relatively cheap.
Also I note the wd mycloud can run plex server, and hardware doesn't get much simp[ler and bare-bones than that.

Outer space is expensive tho :rolleyes:
 
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